Wendell Barnhouse is a nationally-known and respected columnist who has spent over 20 years covering collegiate athletics. He has reported from 25 Final Fours and more than three dozen bowl games and has written about the Big 12 and its schools since the conference's beginning. Barnhouse will be updating the Big 12 Insider on happenings and behind-the-scenes information about the conference.

Here's what Seth Davis of SI.com had to say
about three Big 12 teams' openers.

Baylor
99, Lehigh 77. Though
this was the first game of the weekend (and thus the season), when it ended I
sensed that I might not see a better team performance. Yes, Baylor was at home,
but Lehigh is a very good team with a potential lottery pick in C.J. McCollum.
Yet, it was never a game. That led me to conclude that this could very well be
the best team Scott Drew has coached in Waco.

The main reason I say this is because of
7-foot freshman forward Isaiah Austin, who needed just 17 minutes to score 22 points.
Read that sentence again. Austin converted 10 of his 12 shots, including
2-for-4 from three-point range, before leaving the game in the first half with
a twisted ankle. (Austin did not play Sunday against Jackson State, but Drew
told me he expects him to be back for the Charleston Classic next weekend.)
Austin was scoring with such ease, he could have gone for 40 without breaking a
sweat.

And what happened after Austin went out?
Cory Jefferson, a 6-9 junior forward, took over the post and went for 26 points
and 13 rebounds, both career highs. When you consider that the Bears scored 99
points despite shooting 6-for-20 from three-point range, you get a sense of
their offensive potential.

Oklahoma State 73, UC Davis 65. There
is no more appropriately named player in all of college basketball than Cowboys
point guard Marcus Smart. The 6-4, 225-pound freshman lived up to the hype, not
just because of his imposing physique and explosiveness, but also (and
especially) his vision and court savvy. Smart only shot 1-of-6 from the field,
but he was 6-for-7 from the foul line, and he had seven assists to just one
turnover. On one exchange, Smart jumped up to catch a long offensive rebound
with one hand, and before he hit the ground he fired a dart to Kamari Murphy
for a layup. It was the best pass I saw all weekend.

Oklahoma State is not a particularly big
team, but it is very athletic and fun to watch. Junior guard Markel Brown is an
exciting finisher around the rim, and 6-7 sophomore forward Le'Bryan Nash looks
like he's settling in for a nice season. UC Davis hung around for most of the
game and Travis Ford only played seven guys, so the Cowboys are not operating
on much margin for error. Still, I have to say this was a promising beginning.

Kansas 74, Southeast Missouri State 55. This
game was much closer than the final score indicated. The Redhawks stayed close
until midway through the second half, largely because Kansas was atrocious from
three-point range (2-for-21). Perhaps that's to be expected in the season's
first game, but it's of particular concern that Jayhawks guard Travis Releford
was 0-for-5 from behind the arc and 3-for-11 overall. Many of those long-range
misses were way, way off. Releford is a senior now. If he wants to graduate
from Glue Guy school, he's gonna have to develop his J.

Elsewhere, senior center Jeff Withey
scored a game-high 17 points, but he still looks awkward trying to make moves
in the post. If he's in position and catches the ball in close, he will finish,
but he's not going to create a lot of buckets by his onesies.

That's why 6-8 freshman forward Perry
Ellis will be such a key for this team. He is a far more natural interior
scorer than Withey. And while jumping jack freshman guard Ben McLemore had a
few highlight-reel offensive rebound slams, it's safe to say the teams in the
Big 12 will do a better job blocking out the defensive boards than Southeast
Missouri did.